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Starting Equipment
In some games this doesn't matter so much. In Dungeons and Dragons, for instance, all fighters can afford a sword and starting armor, and the same is true for any basic character class. In such campaigns starting equipment is not a game balance concern. In games such a cyberpunk or Palladium games' Rifts, equipment can be insanely unbalancing. Equipment for combat only Players often forget that equipment does not simply mean weapons, armor and a sexy star fighter. It means the clothes that you wear, and the food that your take with you. It means survival gear and trade goods. It means momentos from the past and useful tools for the future. It means information and identification papers (valid or forged). In some games it can mean a house or a car. In others it can mean a star fighter or a secret headquarters. In those games where weapons and armor can be truly unbalancing it is best for the game master to specify what is available or even have the players role-play out their character's attempts to get certain equipment. Many of the best weapons are illegal and it is perfectly feasible for a GM to tell the player that they can't simply find these items in the local corner market and that if they wish to get them as starting equipment, they will have to role-play out the attempt. In a game where starting equipment is simply listed, rather than giving a certain amount of money that the player can then use to buy gear, the GM can simply assume that the player has trade goods that are difficult to carry with the party and difficult for somebody without the proper connections to convert to cash. This allows the player the money necessary to bargain and buy starting gear without unbalancing the game. It also allows the player, if there attempt to buy the gear is unsuccessful to use the trade goods to buy other more reasonable gear. After all something is only worth what you can sell it for in the end. If players seem intent on purchasing only combat equipment, it may be advisable to have them role-play the purchasing and use that experience to have salesmen try to sell them additional items, and role-play that first time they realize that they didn't buy a tent and have to sleep on the ground (negative modifers applied when they wake up cold and possibly wet the next morning). Equipment with character and style Equipment need not be boring. The Millenium Falcon and the Serenity both had hidden smuggling bays. Kitiara Uth Matar of Dragonlance wore a backpack with a false bottom and a hidden pouch. James Bond had a hidden compartment in his shoe, amongst many other cool things at his disposal. Players can have custom hidden pockets sewn into clothes or backpacks, compartments cut into the heels of boots, have special quickdraw holsters designed for an extra fee, or have the bottom of their scabbard fitted with a removeable cap so that it can be used as a snorkel. This sort of thing gives mundane items that much more cool. Starting equipment can easily be cool in other ways. Your father's sword or armor or lightsaber or revolver. Your mother's book of spells, or star fighter, or droid, or ancient mansion with hidden rooms. Or it could be the sword of the man who killed your mother. This kind of stuff makes the item matter more to most players than a magical effect ever could. Giving Cool without unbalancing things Of course gear like the stuff described above is really cool, and it doesn't unbalance the game at all, but adding tangible effects- magical effects in a fantasy game, other effects in other games can be unbalancing at the start of the game. Most GMs avoid it, but it doesn't have to be unbalancing. A ring that grants premonitions of danger when the player dreams is something that a player will value and not only does it not unbalance the game, but it provides the GM with an ongoing story hook. A cyber-implant that tracks the hidden locator chip implanted in the killer of the character's father is a great reminder of a long term mission and can be used to good effect by the GM whenever the killer passes through an area of importance to the plot. An old mansion bequeathed to the character at her ganrdfather's funeral gives the players a base of operations, but the hidden rooms give the GM a wealth of adventure hooks- what sort of stuff was Grandma involved in anyway? A talking horse that belonged to the player's missing mentor and who is not above lecturing the character when she falls short of the master's expectations can be irritating, but useful when the horse remembers how the master used to do certain skills. None of these things are unbalancing and they are very cool for the players, things that are both cool items and game hooks without being unbalancing are not hard to find. Small but significant advantages are easy to apply to starting equipment and give a story purpose in order to make play more interesting during that period when the players are weak as pond scum. They serve to remind the players of their purpose and to keep the game moving while at the same time making the players feel like Luke Skywalker holding his father's light saber for the first time.